Tag: handscooped

Y is for Yacon Beer

Wow, can you believe that I’ve finally come to the end of this round of Eating the Chocolate Alphabet; it’s been MORE than a year since my “A is for Absinthe” entry! Sadly, I didn’t find a “Z” alcohol chocolate, so this is the last post of the series. Don’t feel cheated that I left out letters in this round – I’ve written about 33 different bars this series – that’s 7 more than the alphabet!

Also, (though maybe I shouldn’t really be surprised), almost 3 years ago I wrote about this unique “Y” letter ingredient as part of my inclusion series. Here’s the link to that post.

The South American Andes meets the Scottish Highlands in this Austrian Zotter bar called: YaconBier and Whisky

As always, I love the wrapper sleeve illustration by artist Andreas H. Gratze. The picture makes me think of a flamenco guitarist, though this musician is probably playing a charango if it is representing Peru and Bolivia in honor of the origin of the yacon root/tuber.

As mentioned, I’ve been waiting to taste this bar for quite some time + the “best by” date elapsed about a year ago, so forgive the chalky white blemishes on the outside of the bar showing the wavy pattern of the 70% noble (dark) chocolate couverture of this “hand scooped” bar. There is no one to blame but myself.

This outer coating was a little crumbly when cut with a knife, but that just made it easier to isolate and taste the chocolate on its own. To me, it was a little smoky (like a mezcal), but I’m guessing it is really the peaty notes from the Scottish Single Malt Whisky.

The ganache looks like a toasted white chocolate and has a slightly crystallized honey or soft/granulated caramel mouthfeel/texture. Based on the inner wrapper, the yacon beer used for this bar was brewed in the volcanic region of Austria by Milli’s Bio-Oasis. If you visit Milli’s website and scroll down, you will see a photo of a yacon root, which looks a lot like a yam or sweet potato.

Typically yacon is used as a natural, alternative sweetener with a low glycemic index; but, in the case of this chocolate bar, raw cane sugar is the first ingredient, so it’s fairly sweet. Honestly, if I didn’t know there was alcohol, I would not have been able to tell. I imagine that a fresh bar would be vibrant! If you’ve tried either the beer or the chocolate, please let me know your thoughts!

Zotter is based in Austria, but they also have a US presence in Florida! For those in Europe, check out: https://www.zotter.at/en/ and for those in the US, visit: https://www.zotterusa.com/

Yes, I have a theme for “Round 5” of Eating the Chocolate Alphabet; however, I’ll be taking a break during the hot summer months since SoCal weather and shipping chocolate don’t mix. For the next round, I plan to feature California-based chocolates A through Z. Bonbons, chocolate shops, confections and bean-to-bar are all fair game, so if there’s a particular place you think I should write about, leave me a note in the comments section. Bonus points if it’s a “double word score” like Andy’s Apothecary!

Salud & Slàinte on this Thirsty Thursday!

W is for Whiskey

Procrastination finally paid off!

This alcohol-related round of Eating the Chocolate Alphabet seems to have dragged on FOREVER! We’re almost at the end though. This is my penultimate post & I’ve been wondering when to write about whiskey. I wasn’t motivated for “Thirsty Thursday” or “Finally Friday.” This morning, I woke up to discover that it is World Whiskey Day. It’s a sign! (or serendipity, you decide!) Had I been more in tune with boozy theme days, I could have said it was planned this way.

OK, time to raid the stash now. I remembered at least 2-3 bars were just waiting for the right day, but searching the inventory spreadsheet I was surprised to find 6 whiskey bars (well, technically 7, but you’ll have to wait until the last post of this series to hear about that one!)

It’s now 11:45 AM & the only thing I’ve eaten in the last 3 hours has been boozy chocolate. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it. Suffice it to say that I’m craving protein, or carbs, or veggies…ANYTHING!

Since tasting and photographing started around breakfast time, the Zotter Whisky & Bacon bar seemed like a logical beginning! (You’re probably also wondering about “whisky” vs. “whiskey” – the Scottish spell it without the “e” while the Irish & Americans include it – there’s no difference in terms of the alcohol though.)

Don’t you just love the cute & colorful pig/pork inspired illustrations on the front of this wrapper?! I’m sow-prised that I couldn’t figure out puns about the piggy Marilyn Monroe or Blues Brothers characters. I was worried puns would “boar” you, so I’ll just “swine” about it instead 😜 (Sorry, those sounded funnier in my head!)

This bar is from Zotter’s hand-scooped collection, which means that there are multiple layers involved.

Beneath the thin layer of dark chocolate couverture there is a milk chocolate whisky ganache layer, as well as hazelnut praline with pork cracklings. The ingredients list says: “whisky (alcoholic extract of bacon)” which I suppose means that they steeped bacon in whisky to impart the flavor! It’s definitely creamy, crunchy, salty & sweet all at the same time. During my first tasting, I didn’t notice the baking spice flavors; but this time, I could taste the vanilla, cinnamon and star anise. There’s apparently also cardamom, but it must have been really subtle.

Next up is Bixby & Co.’s 70% Dominican Republic Bourbon bar. They used barrel aged, grain-to-glass, Maine-made bourbon from Split Rock Distilling.

Woah, there Trish! This is supposed to be “W is for Whiskey!” Why are you trying a bourbon bar? Maybe you’ve heard the saying “all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.” It’s complicated, but the differences in the spirits have to do with the grain content, distillation and type of wood used for barrel aging.

A bourbon whiskey is made with at least 50% corn and barrel aged. From Split Rock’s website, it looks like they use 60% corn, 20% wheat, 15% barley & 5% rye and barrel age in new char 3 white oat.

Anyway, I digress…back to the chocolate.

Look at how DETAILED this mould design is! I see an octopus and books amongst the sworls. It seemed like such a shame to break into it. Straight out of the inner foil wrapper, the bar aroma reminded me of balsamic vinegar. With a medium to sharp snap, I placed a tasting morsel on my tongue. It started off floral/herbal and then tasted like a pound cake or marzipan. Lightly textured/thick mouthfeel during the slow/even melt and fruity on the finish with some tip of tongue tingles.

Next is Goodnow Farms’ Special Reserve Single Origin 77% dark chocolate with Putnam Rye Whiskey. They steeped the Esmeraldas (Ecuador) beans for several days in Boston Harbor Distillery’s rye whiskey. A rye whiskey means that more than 50% of the mash is that grain type. In fact, the BHD Putnam New England Rye is 95% rye and 5% two-row malted barley!

Love the nearly pristine matte finish of this bar, while the back of the bar had interesting swirls from the chocolate machine’s depositing heads.

Super smooth & creamy during the slow even melt since there is additional cocoa butter (pressed in house from the same Esmeraldas origin beans). Initially tasted like drunken raisins or cherries, which then evolved to walnuts or pecans with a yogurt-like tang at the back of the throat after the chocolate was gone from the mouth.

I saved this Chocolate Tree Whisky Nibs bar for last since they soaked the Marañon Canyon (Peru) nibs in a single malt from Islay, known to have very peaty/smoky notes.

With the topsy turvy tiles, some pieces were thicker than others. Straight out of the inner pouch, there was a drunken dried fruit aroma which is typical of Peruvian origin chocolate. Once I snapped off a tasting morsel, that distinctive earthy peat smell took over. Lightly crumbly when chewed, each bite was chock full of crunchy nibs. Here’s a close up of one of those inclusions:

In the opening “class photo,” you likely saw two other bars that I haven’t described yet. Well, let’s just say that those are mass produced/bulk industrial brands rather than craft chocolate.

The Canadian maple whisky inside the milk chocolate leaf shaped shell was very sweet, had a waxy mouthfeel and didn’t melt easily on the tongue.

The 58% dark chocolate + Irish Whiskey was a thick bar with a medium snap & a toothy bite. Again, it didn’t melt easily, was waxy/too sweet and had an overwhelming vanilla aroma (though none was added).

At the time that I first tasted these chocolates, it was TOO early to pair with whiskey. But now that “happy hour” is approaching, maybe I’ll do some cocktail pairings. Stay tuned for the results, though I can already tell you that the Chocolate Tree bar pairs well with Laphroaig!

To learn more about the craft chocolates described here, check out each maker’s websites:

Bixby & Co. – https://bixbyco.com/
Chocolate Tree – https://www.choctree.co.uk/
Goodnow Farms – https://goodnowfarms.com/
Zotter (USA) – https://www.zotterusa.com/

Cheers & how are YOU celebrating World Whisk(e)y Day? 🥃

V is for Vodka

Translation can be a funny thing!

It’s always fascinating to learn new terminology when conducting research for these posts. For example, the label of this bar made by Zotter Schokoladen in Austria:

You see three ingredients that start with “ERD” – the German word for earth.

  • ERDnuss – literal translation is “earth nut” (meaning peanut)
  • ERDäpfel – “earth apple” (meaning potato)
  • ERDbeere – “earth berry” (meaning strawberry)

Like many of Zotter’s unique inclusion bars, this one is “handscooped,” meaning that it is comprised of multiple layers. The first is a handmade peanut nougat with chunky pieces of brittle and next is an equally sized layer of potato vodka enhanced ganache made with apricot and sweet potato. All this is enrobed (coated) with strawberry flavored milk chocolate.

The overall taste is an adult peanut butter & jelly chocolate sandwich! Even though vodka is listed as an ingredient, it really isn’t boozy at all.

Speaking of that alcohol, until recently I assumed that all vodka was produced by fermenting potatoes. Turns out that vodka was also traditionally made from fermented grains like wheat, barley and rye. Looking through a list of vodkas on Wikipedia, I was surprised to see ones made with grapes, peaches, figs and even horseradish or creamed corn!

Did you notice letters behind the three bears on the label illustration? It says “klima wandel” (climate change). Based on reading the inner wrapper, my guess is that this bar was created in support of a climate initiative/earth talks in Vienna. So, in keeping with the earlier translations, could it be that the name of the bar “Rettet die ERD-Bären” (save the earth bears) really means “save the humans”?

If you’re in the U.S. and would like to buy some Zotter bars for yourself, please visit their website: https://www.zotterusa.com/

For those in Europe, use this link: https://www.zotter.at

Wherever you are in the world…
Cheers/Prost/Na Zdorovie on this Thirsty Thursday!